The fact that bacteria can have sex has been known for around 70 years - if we define the term "sex" broadly enough. In addition to their conventional ring-shaped chromosome, many bacteria contain other small DNA rings...

The discoverer of microbes had to have a magnifying glass to be able to enlarge objects that are not visible to the naked eye. However, it was neither an optician, nor a technician or biologist, but a cloth merchant who was the first person to see microbes: Antoni van Leeuwenhoek from Delft used small magnifying glasses, as was common...

Not at all - they can also be club-shaped, Y- and V-shaped or stand on a stalk. Even rectangular shapes exist. Round microbes are called cocci. The internal cell pressure presses the cell walls into a rounded shape like a balloon. Cocci (Greek: kokkos, nucleus) can form pairs (diplococci) or chains (Greek: streptós, hence...

The old theological question of how many angels can fit on the tip of a needle has never been answered satisfactorily (only Christian Morgenstern had a conclusive thought on this). But it has been discovered how many bacteria colonise a grain of sand: Up to 100,000 per grain! If you like juggling with large numbers, you will certainly...

Attempts are made to protect animals and plants that are rare and threatened with extinction, or they are at least included in the Red List of Threatened Species. There is no Red List for bacteria and archaea. However, collections of living microorganisms store thousands of microbial strains so that they can be made available to...